The New Yorker Pregames the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Tonight, President Obama will turn on the funny at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—or, as it’s known around D.C., Nerd Prom. To mark the occasion, last night The New Yorker threw its second annual night-before-the-dinner party on the roof of the W Hotel. Like the dinner itself, the party was, once again, a three-way mashup of Washington (Janet Napolitano, Valerie Jarrett, Anthony Weiner), Hollywood (Sean Penn, Jon Hamm, Bradley Cooper), and the media (Lara Logan, Arianna Huffington, Andrew Sullivan). Plus one uncategorizable: the Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, a.k.a. The Flying Tomato.

In the spirit of cross-pollination, there were some interesting groupings. The filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen chatted with our own Seymour M. Hersh, while the musicians David Byrne and St. Vincent sat down with Zach Galifianakis and Sean Penn. Jon Hamm shook hands with Valerie Jarrett, while Atul Gawande and Ezra Klein talked health care. Other guests throughout the night included the sitcom stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”) and Rashida Jones (“Parks and Recreation”), the director Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”), and the designer Tara Subkoff. Midway through, Seth Meyers, who has the precarious task of hosting tonight’s dinner, showed up with his family, including his unnervingly look-alike brother. If he claimed to be nervous, you couldn’t see it on his brow. Below, some snapshots from the evening.